Karnataka Crisis: ‘Black sheep’ in BJP, confident of winning trust vote, says Siddaramaiah

Amid the ongoing political crisis in Karnataka, Congress leader Siddaramaiah had said that he was confident that the Congress-JDS coalition government in the southern state will win the trust vote, sought by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday. Siddaramaiah said while they requested the floor test, the BJP was afraid of it as they knew there were black sheep in the saffron party.

"We are confident. That is why we are moving a vote of confidence motion. The BJP is afraid because they know there are black sheep in their party," Siddaramaiah was quoted by ANI news agency as saying.

The statement from the Congress leader came after the BJP moved their MLAs to multiple resorts in and around Bengaluru ahead of the floor test. During the Assembly session on Friday, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy sought Trust Vote, saying that he was not there to stick to the chair.

"Today there are many things happening in our state's politics because of the decisions of many MLAs, which has created a difficult situation. I am not here to sit in power, I appeal to you that in light of the developments I want to move a trust motion,” the Karnataka chief minister said while urging the Speaker to fix the date and time for floor test.

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A serious political engulfed the southern state after 16 of the ruling coalition's legislators and two independents resigned from the Assembly. Their resignation put the Kumaraswamy government in jeopardy but Speaker Ramesh Kumar gave it the much-needed breather by rejected some of the resignations.

The issue reached the Surpeme Court, which ordered to maintain the status quo on MLAs resignations and posted the matter for next hearing on Tuesday. The MLAs tendered fresh resignations on Thursday but the Speaker has not accepted them so far.

The ruling coalition’s total strength is 116 (Congress-78), JD(S)-37 and BSP-1, besides the Speaker. The BJP has 107 MLAs in the 224-member House, where the half-way mark is 113. However, if the resignations of the rebel MLAs are accepted, the strength of Congress-JDS coalition will come down to 100 and the Kumaraswamy government will come in minority.